• I never enjoyed sleeping, as when I was normal I always had nightmares, so one of the joys of becoming abnormal was that I no longer needed to sleep. They’ve kept me in the same room for as long as I can remember. I can’t see anything beyond it, they’ve layered the walls with something that hinders my powers. The walls are white, the air is filtered, and the only furniture is a short metal frame with wheels on the bottom and a thin mattress on top. They call it a bed, but I know better. Beds are places of quiet where you close your eyes and drift peacefully into a state of utter rest. I spent half a year strapped to that thing. It is not a bed.
    The metal door on the left side of my room opens and a nurse dressed in white enters. I lay down on the bed that is not a bed and close my eyes, falling into a sleep that is not sleep.
    “Here Alice,” the nurse says, laying a plate of food down on the ground, “I want you to eat this.”
    Alice; I cringe at the name. They’ve changed it again. They’ve called me by so many different names, I don’t know which one is mine anymore. There is an upside though, this nurse is new. She doesn’t know what I can do. They must be getting sloppy; they think I don’t have any fight left in me.
    I use telekinesis, one of my many powers, to lift the plate of mush the nurse calls food into the air. I hear her gasp, I can feel her thoughts racing. She’s scared; perfect.
    “You don’t know what they’ve done to me,”I say. It’s not a question.
    The nurse mumbles something incoherent and takes a few steps toward the door.
    “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,”I say, allowing my self the small pleasure of a smile, “You noticed when you put on your uniform that it was heavier than it should be. You knew something was off, but with the money they’re paying you, you couldn’t care less.”
    Once again, it’s not a question. I know what she’s thinking; a fact she must have guessed by now. She’s almost to the door, her hand is reaching for the knob.
    “I really don’t want to kill you, but I won’t feel bad about it if you force my hand. I don’t remember which experiment removed my sense of morals, but it’s quite a handy side effect,”I pause and the nurse moves her hand slowly away from the door; smart girl, “They’ve laced your uniform with explosives. They think because of my age, I won’t want to risk killing an innocent. They were wrong.”
    The nurse reaches frantically for the zipper in the back of her uniform. I suppose it’s a pretty rational reaction. No one likes to be a walking bomb.
    “I wouldn’t do that either. There’s a fail-safe trigger on the zipper. I’m pretty sure they never planned on letting you walk out alive, either way. But still, if you’re going to insist on committing suicide, at least give me enough time to protect myself from the blast.
    The nurse lets her hands fall to her sides. She’s crying now. Her thoughts are wandering towards her son. She loves him very much.
    I feel a small twinge in my heart at the thought of love. I’ve never known such an emotion. Part of me yearns for it. I quickly shake off the feeling, locking it away. It’s more like an annoying itch than anything else.
    “That’s a good girl,” I croon, letting the plate of mush fall to the ground, “Now if you would please walk towards the piece of furniture I am currently sitting on, I’m going to use this plate to restrain you.”
    She obeys and I bend the plastic with my mind, creating a sort of makeshift hand cuffs. Once she’s secured to the bed that is not a bed, I open my eyes. Besides the mass of food that isn’t really food splattered on the floor, this accursed room looks the same as it always has. I let my feet hit the floor and head for the door. I don’t look back at the nurse, but I can feel her hopeless fear. She knows she’ll never see her son again.
    I open the metal door and take a few steps outside of my prison. I’m in a hallway with white walls. A silent alarm is sounding somewhere in the distance, I can feel guards running my way. They know I’ve escaped.
    I run down the hallway at full speed, blindly groping at the sweet freedom hanging only inches from my grasp. Suddenly, a sharp pain pierces my back. I cringe as enough volts of electricity to kill five normal humans course through my body. Consciousness as well as freedom are slipping from my grasp and I am powerless to stop them. My body drops to the floor and my vision goes black.
    When I open my eyes, I am once again in my room. I smile slightly. Although they stopped me from escaping, I now have the upper hand. The rest of the building is not lined with the odd power-blocking element my room is. I know the layout. I know the path to escape.
    I lay quietly on the bed that is not a bed and slip into a deep meditation. All I have to do now is wait. I will wait forever and a day if that’s what it takes, but I know that one day I will be free